Saturday A meet recap

The first dual meet of the season saw the WWST Tigers head out to Germantown to swim against Cloppers Mill. The morning was gray and threatening to rain, but neither the weather nor the strong competition from the home team kept our team from putting forth a very strong showing. While the final score of the meet showed it to be a big win for the home team, that was not a reflection of how our team performed, but rather a reflection on the changes that Clopper Mill underwent prior to the start of the season.

The first event, the 12 & under Boys 100 IM, was typical of how the meet went on Saturday. Thomas Moynihan and and Tim Wasel both posted enormous drops in time from their efforts at time trials on the previous Saturday, with Thomas dropping nearly 9 seconds and Tim improving by nearly 12 seconds. However, they were only able to place third and fourth respectively in the event. Cloppers Mill set a bunch of team and pool records during the meet, so while many swims for Wheaton Woods showed major improvements in performance, that improvement in time was not always reflected in how the Tigers placed in an event.

The other coaches and I were very proud of how we as a team conducted ourselves and continued to race and compete throughout the meet, even when it was apparent that outcome of the meet was not going to be in doubt. We showed good sportsmanship and showed that we can handle a setback, which was something that we never had to deal with during our perfect run last season.

Notable Performances

In addition to the great 100 IM swims by Thomas Moynihan and Tim Wasel, there are some other swims that deserve some special recognition. The time improvements are in comparison to the times that were swum at time trials the week before.

• George Marcolin with an improvement of over 5 seconds in 25 free
• Mary Sheetz with an amazing time drop of over 15 seconds in 25 free
• Joseph Moynihan with a huge drop of 18 seconds in 50 free
• Matthias Barish with a 9 second improvement in 50 free
• Mitchell Kuhnsman with a 5 second drop in 50 free
• Mary Rowedder with a nice 5 second improvement in 50 free
• Alex Wasel with a 4 second improvement in 100 IM
• Shawn Mashburn with a 5 second drop in 25 back
• Matthew Ourand with a 7 second drop in 50 back
• Tim Wasel with a 7 second drop in 50 back
• Marcello Beatley with a 5 second drop in 50 back
• Thomas Moynihan with a 5 second drop in 50 breast
• Michael Moynihan with a nearly 5 second improvement in 50 breast
• Brigid English with a 3 second drop in 25 fly
• Thomas Moynihan with a 6 second improvement in 50 fly
• Benedict Radich with a big 8 second improvement in 50 fly
• John Francis Marcolin with a large 8 second drop in 50 fly

These were just the big time drops that we showed. There were many other improvements of "only" a second or two, which are of course significant improvements n their own right. As mentioned before, this was a very strong showing the by team as a whole. There were also very strong performances by some people who had been away or who were not able to attend time trials.

Event Winners

Despite the touch competition, we were able to grab some first-place finishes.

• Kevin Ourand, 9-10 50 free
• Tom Kilmer, 8 & under 25 breast
• Johnny English, 13-14 50 breast
• Taylor Swift, 15-18 100 breast
• Avery Miller, 9-10 25 fly

Overall, we had a good meet in that we took care of the things that we could control. We improved our times and we raced well in each event, which is all we can do as a team. We can't change what the other team can do, so we focus on taking care of our business at the meet. As long as we do that, then we will give ourselves a chance to win.

This is a busy week with another dual meet on Saturday and the relay carnival on Sunday. Let's have a great week of practice and be ready for the next challenge.